[Elecraft] Ten Tec never sounded so good!

[Jim Brown]

On Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:58:48 -0800 (PST), lstavenhagen wrote:

>I always thought the goal for voice modes was a good "communications"
>response, an intentional "low-fi".  i.e. good response in the frequency
>range of the human voice (something like 300 to 1 or 2 khz), but with 
peaks
>and dips, as well as rolloffs on the ends as needed to increase
>intelligibility without unnecessarily increasing bandwidth.

You're close. Optimum communications response should be razor flat between 
about 400 Hz and 3 kHz, rolling off sharply below 400 Hz. Peaks and dips 
add phase distortion, which is NOT a good thing. The K2 sounds good when 
you're receiving through its TX crystal filter, but it has really awful 
amplitude and phase response when its tunable RX crystal filters are 
aligned for fairly narrow SSB bandwidth. This makes using it for SSB 
contesting akin to torture. The K3 does not have that problem. 

Loudspeakers and headphones are important components of the signal chain. 
The response of cheap loudspeakers and headphones can be pretty atrocious, 
so it's worth finding good ones. 

Also, don't forget that the K3 can be set up for general coverage RX and 
wide IF so you can listen to AM broadcasters. That's a good reason for 
using better loudspeakers or headphones. 

Yes, there are some hams running wideband SSB and AM on the HF bands. 
That's fine if the bands are not busy, but when they do that under crowded 
band conditions, I view them as quite selfish. 

73,

Jim K9YC